A/N: Gloomy chapter again, I've said before I was wondering why I have this eery ideas involving Sasuke, but this one is more about Itachi than him. I like Itachi so much I think it would be a shame not to include my thoughts about his unseen past. The inspiration came from an interview with Kishimoto-sensei, in which he says that Itachi probably had a girlfriend. It's my first time writing about an OC, so I hope you like it.

Endless1994: Thank you very much, I'm honored by your request, so yeah, go ahead ;)

Fier66: Hey, there. I'm glad you liked it. I don't know when my next InoSai it's coming, though, but I will work on it.

And thanks to the ones who favorited the fic and/or are following it now.

Sasuke stopped by Konoha's gates. He was having a weird feeling that something was about to happen.

"Oh, hi, there, pilgrim!" Greeted a familiar voice behind his back. Hinata was walking towards him with a smile on her face.

"Hinata." He smiled back. "How are you?"

"I'm fine. I'm glad to see you here. Naruto-kun and Sakura-chan will be very happy when they come back."

"Oh, they're out on a mission?"

She nodded. "You should have told us you're coming, they would have stayed here and we could have prepared something like a welcoming party."

"No, thank you." He laughed. "Actually, even I don't really know I'm coming home till I get here... I'm sorry for missing your wedding, though."

Hinata smiled and shrugged. "You didn't miss much: 'I do', 'I do-ttebayo', same old thing."

Sasuke laughed. It was easy to talk to her. He caught up on the news while they walked down the street but everything else faded away when he spotted a young woman among the crowd. Her image opened up a huge hole on his heart, Sasuke forgot how to breath. It couldn't be, it couldn't be...

"Sasuke-kun? Are you alright?" Hinata asked putting a hand on his arm.

It took Sasuke a while to find his voice and took him even more to think of something to say.

"Hinata, are you... Are you seeing that girl over there?" He asked breathless.

Hinata, worried with her friend's livid complexion, looked around to see whoever could make that Sasuke like that.

"Who? That brunette looking at the Hokage Mountain?" She guessed. Sasuke seemed in too much pain to talk, so he just nodded. "Yeah, I see her and..." Hinata turned her byakugan on "... She has normal chakra flow, she is real. What about her?"

"Sasuke-kun? Sasuke-kun, is it really you?" The unknown woman said when she spotted, she ran to Sasuke without waiting answer. "Sasuke-kun, what the heck is going on?! I-I... Where is our houses? Where is everybody?" She cried out with her arms around herself. "And I can't see with my right eye! Where is your brother? I was talking to him and then..."

Then Sasuke got it. He didn't know why, but a few clues on her nostalgic beautiful figure, the dirt in her face and clothes, that weird dead white on her right eye that was once so lively, the fact that her body seemed stiff, like she hadn't moved it for long years...

It can't be.

"Hinata, knock her out." He whispered to his friend.

Hinata still didn't get a thing, but Sasuke seemed so intense she didn't argue and did what he'd asked.

"That's... Unbelievable." Said Kakashi. "But it seems like she really is Naomi-chan."

He and Sasuke were at the hospital room where he had taken Naomi after Hinata knocked her out. Then, Sasuke asked her to call the Hokage, after he got there, the young man told his former sensei his suspicions.

"How do you know Naomi-nee?" Sasuke asked.

"She used to come to ANBU's HQ a lot after Itachi got in. I was your brother's captain, you see." Kakashi explained quickly. "But that really can't be! Her corpse was found with the others that time. Naomi-chan was buried like every Uchiha except you and Itachi!"

"I-I think my brother saved her." Sasuke whispered.

"How do you figure?"

"Well..." He swallowed the lump on his throat. "You realize she is older now, right? Naomi-nee was buried when she was 12, and that Naomi is definitely way older than that, so it's not like she had resurrected, she just didn't die back then!"

Kakashi frowned. "So you are saying they buried an alive girl who kept living all this time inside a coffin?"

Sasuke pointed to Naomi's right eye. "Her right eye is white. It's a sign of a person who used the Izanami, a very powerful yet risky jutsu of the Uchiha clan, it can trap one inside a parallel universe, where the same event keeps repeating it self till the victim figures the secret out. Meanwhile, the body gets lifeless, waiting for the mind to return."

Kakashi got Sasuke's point. "So, you think that Naomi-chan trapped herself on Izanami, was buried like dead, then figure the secret of her own jutsu, woke up, then dig her way out of the coffin, that's why she was covered in dirty?" Sasuke nodded. "But how would she do that?"

"Itachi used a genjutsu to force her to!"

"Do you really think that is possible?"

Sasuke shrugged. "If there are two people who could pull that out are nii-san and Naomi-nee."

"And why Itachi would do that?"

"He loved her more than life itself, of course he would try to save her."

"No, I mean: why would he go for all this trouble to make her look dead instead of just let her live like he did to you?"

Sasuke sighed. He had also thought about that. "I don't know. Maybe nii-san didn't want her to see him like a murderer or maybe that Danzou guy wouldn't let us both live..."

Kakashi eyed him. "You know that there's still the possibility of this all being a set up, right? Maybe someone who would like to crush your heart by poking painful memories."

"Why would anyone pick her to mess me up? There's so many other painful memories, like mom and dad... Itachi..."

The Hokage shook his head. "No. You are in peace with your own past now, what still could hurt you is the thought of the happy life that Itachi should have lived. And who would represent that better than your brother's girlfriend?"

Sasuke felt his eyes burn, he blinked to avoid the tears and looked at Naomi's sleeping face.

"It is her. I have the exact same feeling looking at her that I used to have when I was 8."

Kakashi looked at Sasuke closely, having also lost his family too soon, he understood why would the young man want so badly to have a last relative alive, but his suppositions, oddly, seemed to be the truth. But, Kakashi was sure, the only reason that made Sasuke to figure such a preposterous plan out was because he was desperate for her to be alive.

"There's still a problem left." He said slowly. "As an Uchiha, Naomi-chan is subject to the Curse of Hatred, and finding out that the love of her life was mind played till he was forced to slay his own clan it quite enough to surrender to the curse."

Sasuke leaned back on the wall. "I know. That's why she knocked out and that's why I called you here."

They looked at her for a while, a nurse was cleaning her out with a sponge carefully.

"We can't have another Uchiha episode, not after the last Uchiha who woke up from death."

"What are you saying? That is too dangerous for her to live? That would have been better if my brother had killed her like everyone else?!"

Kakashi shook his head. "I was just saying that we must be careful. Do you have any idea how you'll tell her?"

Sasuke pressed his lips tight together. "Naomi-nee is smarter than me, and she's kind. I think that she will be fine… the village will be fine. I will make her understand and if I don't, well, that guy certainly can do that. He's good at persuading people."

"Yes. He and Sakura should be back this week and I think Naomi-chan will need to stay here for a few days. So, yeah, I also think that everything will be alright." Kakashi said, smiling a bit.

Sasuke eyed him. "So you believe me? You also think nii-san planned all that?"

Kakashi started his way to the door. "I agree with you: if there's two people connected enough to do all that, it would be them."

After they made up for years of malnutrition and coma Naomi was discharged. Sasuke was spending all the time with her, most of the time, she was feeling to weak or disoriented to talk, which was good for Sasuke, but, when he went pick her up after the discharge, he knew that he had to start explaining things for her.

"So, where are we going?" Naomi asked when they were walking towards Sasuke's place.

"To my house around here. The Uchiha estate doesn't exist anymore." He said hesitant.

Naomi just tilted her head. "For how long I've been off?"

"Twelve years."

For Sasuke's surprise, she laughed. "Wow, I spent half of my life underground! I think that makes me a mole or an earthworm." Sasuke also laughed. He had forgotten how lighthearted Naomi was. "Itachi will be there, right? I miss him so much my heart's boxed up."

"He won't. But, huh, well.. Nee-san, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Anything."

"What is the last thing you remember before waking up?"

Naomi gave it a thought. "I was 12, it was dawn, Itachi came to me, he kissed me" she blushed deeply before continuing "and then he took me to a mirror and told me to use my Sharingan to remember the physical sensations of that moment then I should try memorize and replicate that by releasing Yin…" Her left eye started to get watery, her voice came out mournful: "And then he said 'Goodbye, my love', kissed my cheek and left… I tried to stop him but I… him… again and again…It just stopped when I told him 'I won't give up on you even if you go away'... I woke up, I was lying on a dark, narrow place, I could smell the dirt and wood, so I figure it out I was buried and wrapping myself on a thin chakra cover, I digged my way out."

"He trapped you inside a genjutsu and made you trap yourself inside an even stronger one, the Izanami." Sasuke explained.

Naomi dried her tears, nodding. "Yeah, Itachi could do that. But, why?"

He hesitated again. "Nii-san knew that, after that, hard times would come. He had to do that in order to save you. And now things are better, different, but better. You only will be able to appreciate that because of what Nii-san did."

She frowned. "And where is him?"

"I will guide you through these new times first, then I will take you to Itachi." Sasuke told her. Naomi inhaled deeply.

"Okay. I probably look awful right now, it's better I put on a few healthy pounds, get a tan and buy myself cute clothes before I see him." She said in one breath.

Sasuke laughed. "Is that so?"

On the next day, they went out shopping. Meanwhile, Sasuke was telling her the things she had lost - leaving aside anything related to their clan. But, knowing how smart Naomi was, he was sure she had already figured out that the Uchiha clan was no longer that powerful and big.

"It's nice to see that Konoha had a female Hokage while I was gone." She said, smiling at Tsunade's face on the Hokage Mountain. Now they were sitting under a tree, eating ice cream. "And, talking about females…" She gave a devious smile. "Who was that lovely lady with you that time, that one that knocked me out? Is she your girlfriend?"

"Oh, Hinata? No. She's my best friend's wife and a good friend. She is very nice, you'll like her."

"Oh? You have friends now? You were a rather lonely kid. Itachi used to worry about that. 'Sasuke is so concerned about being the best student that he forgets he should also use his academy time to make friends', he said."

That brought a smile to his face. "Well, he's not a person that you can easily ignore. Naruto is like… huh… a very thick nail trying to dig itself into your heart. At first it hurts, you push him away, it's a bother but, once he digs in - and he will never stop trying until he does - you just can't get it out. Hinata, on the other hand, is more like a warm bath. You don't really notice how much she's warming you inside until you try to get out of the water. That's why they are so perfect for each other, they have different kinds of love but both of theirs are vital after you try it."

Naomi kept looking at him with wondering eyes and raised eyebrows. "Ehhhh…"

"What?" He laughed.

"You sound so corny, Sasuke-kun. You are in love with someone, aren't you?" Sasuke felt his cheeks burn when she said that. "Oh, dear! You're blushing, how rare! So, so, so, who is she?"

"Sakura." He answered looking away. "Sakura Haruno."

Naomi smiled fondly. "Is Sakura-san your girlfriend?"

"Well, since I proposed to her last time I was here, you can say she's my fiancée."

"That's so cute! My Sasuke-kun is going to get married. God, I really am old, huh?" They laughed. "But it's a feeling like no other, isn't it? To be in love."

Sasuke looked at Naomi's face. She had become the beautiful woman she always purported to be. The long light brown hair framed perfectly her porcelain face, with sparkling eyes - even if now one of them was white - and pink lips. He remembered that his mother once said: "I'm so happy that Itachi and Naomi-chan are getting along as their fathers want them to. I will have the cutest grandchildren ever after they get married". It was true, but the thought of the wonderful future Itachi should have had beside the girl he loved was too painful. If it hurts so much for me…

No, he couldn't postpone it anymore. It was too cruel make her believe that future was still a possibility.

"Nee-san, I…"

"Oh! So it is true! You're back!" Said Sakura running towards them.

Sasuke got up and hugged her tightly, trying to get the courage he needed from her cozy warmth.

"Wait a second, why everytime I see you you're alone with a pretty lady?" She joked by his ear.

"Sakura" he said, guiding her by hand to Naomi "this is Uchiha Naomi, my brother's girlfriend and truly a sister to me. Nee-san, like I told you before, this is Sakura, my fiancée."

The women smiled to each other and Naomi reached her hand out. "Sakura-san, please take a good care of me."

Sakura was too stunned to talk but shook her hand. She looked at Sasuke seeming terrified. "I… all your clan… I thought th… How is she… What?" Sakura gasped.

"My brother figured out a way to keep Naomi-nee alive." He explained shortly.

"What? He knew something was about to happen to our clan? Itachi was involved on whatever happened?" Naomi asked.

Sasuke gulped. "Sakura, as you can see, I have a few things I need to discuss with Naomi-nee."

Sakura was quick to understand, she waved to them and ran, but it was enough for Naomi to notice the worried expression she had. The Uchiha young woman frowned.

"It's time to take you to see Itachi." Sasuke said grabbing her hand to guide her back to the cemetery.

xxx

"So that's what happened." She said quietly.

"I'm sorry." It was the only thing that Sasuke could say.

Naomi kept looking at Itachi's grave with an indecipherable expression. "Why did Itachi had to die? I understand he had no choice but to exterminate all our clan, but why did he have to die?"

"He… didn't…"

"And if he was planning all that, why would he make me live? How can I live without him?"

Sasuke grabbed her shoulder. "No, Nee-san, live with me! Let's appreciate together the world that Itachi gave his life... twice... to build for us! You still can be happy here!"

A deep shadow crossed her face. "No peace, no happiness, no future worth Itachi's life."

A iron claw crushed Sasuke's chest. "Naomi. Watch out. You know we can't let t..."

"Leave me alone now, Sasuke-kun."

"N..."

"Please." She begged, hiding her face behind her hands. Sasuke just sighed and left.

Later, when he told Sakura everything, the medical nin cried.

"Poor Naomi-san." She cried out. "If I were her... If I woke up to find out that you're dead, that after spending years losing you again and again, I found out that I would never see you again... Just the thought of that is unbearable."

Sasuke looked at her. "But wouldn't you be glad to find out that your beloved gave his life for something that he believed? It's the best dead that a shinobi can achieve."

Sakura shook her head. "There is nothing like the life of the person we love."

"So what do you mean? Naomi-nee is doomed?"

She leaned her head. "Well... Maybe her best friend can cool her anger down by facing her on a deadly fight. Do you know her best friend?"

Sasuke sighed. "Yes, we shared the same parents."

"God, he was her best friend too?"

"Itachi and Naomi-nee were... soulmates. Anyone could see that. Even if my father and Naomi's had arranged their marriage as soon as they were born, they clicked. I remember how they used to stare at each other for hours silently. Naomi-nee just have to syntonize her feeling with my brother again then she will be able to do the right thing." Sasuke proclaimed.

"The thing is, Sasuke-kun, I don't think she has the will to do anything."

"Oh, no." Sasuke sighed when he saw Naomi on the next day.

"She looks... huh… tired." Said Naruto, frowning. He and Sakura had come with him to look for her former future sister-in-law. Sasuke hadn't asked, but they came anyway and Sasuke was glad. It was one of that amazing things of truly reaching people's hearts: understand each other better them themselves.

Naomi was exactly where Sasuke had let her: standing by Itachi's grave, looking at his name written on the light-colored rock like she was expecting it to change. The wobbly legs and the hair wet with dew indicated that she had not moved since he had left there. The trio got closer to her, Naomi didn't move but said with hoarse voice: "Hey, Sasuke-kun, Sakura-san. Is the the infamous Naruto?"

"Yes, hi! How are you doing?" He said, then felt very stupid for asking that.

"Better, actually." Naomi answered. "More resolute. I get him now." She still wasn't looking at them. "I understand."

"What do you mean, Nee-san?"

"Itachi had a long, exhaustive mission he needed… no, he thought he needed to do by himself. Finish the Uchiha was just the first step, but Itachi was such a selfless martyr he would never be able to forgive himself. That's why he worked so hard to make you hate him, but he couldn't let me live with you because he knew I would never hate him or let you do so. And, unlike you, I would never let him leave. I would haunt him down and follow him but Itachi didn't want my hands get dirty with the sins of criminal organization." Naomi finally turned his head to Sasuke. "That's why he need to think of a way to save me, but keep my away from you and the world. Itachi knew the Izanami was the best alternative, but he couldn't give his eye up because he still needed to look like a worthy opponent to you, someone strong enough to awake feeling strong enough to turn you against your beloved Nii-san." Now a small smile played on her lips. "You know, Itachi always said that he would be feel content a brother if you just saw him as an obstacle to be overcome, encouraging you to be the best ninja you could be… That's was the way he found to accomplish his mission, save us and still insure a avenger for himself."

Sasuke felt like crying again, but he held back the tears. "It does sound like Nii-san. All this."

Naomi smiled again. "That's the thing about soulmates: it's easy understand their thoughts once you put yourself on their place. There's one last thing, though."

"What?"

"I think he planned my return as well, he wanted me to come back to you once you had avenged our clan by killing him and then I would be able to comfort you and you, me. He never thought I would want to live without him, Itachi just hoped I would, he wished you could give me strenght to live and I wouldn't let you alone." She said. "But you're not alone anymore and I… I don't have anything left to give now, Sasuke-kun. Not even to my beloved little brother."

Sasuke's heart sank, he could feel where this talk would lead them to.

"So, please, Sasuke-kun, won't you really take me to see Itachi?"

He thought Naruto or Sakura would say anything to her because he just couldn't find his voice but they didn't.

"Can… you guys leave us for now? I will come for you after I… we…" Sasuke whispered to them.

Naruto opened his mouth but Sakura stopped him. "There's just nothing left for her to fight, Naruto." She mubled, grabbing his arm to guide him away.

When they were gone, Sasuke drew his sword.

"Can ask you something?" She said.

"Anything."

"This time, can you lay me next to him?"

"This is an honorary grave, he's not really here." He explained.

Naomi sighed. "Okay. Oh, do you want to keep it?" She said, pointing to her good eye. "It's not a Rinnegan but I'm pretty sure this whole story awoke a pretty good Mangekyo." To prove her words, she turned her new sun-shaped Mangekyo Sharingan on.

Sasuke smiled. "Keep it. It looks good on you and Itachi ruined his left eye using the Izanami. It will be another proof that you complete each other."

Naomi also smiled. "I'm glad, though, he did all that for us. I had the opportunity to witness what a great man you've become, Sasuke-kun. We are proud of you."

Sasuke held his sword up but his arm seemed to weight one thousand pounds. "I don't think I can do that, Nee-san."

"It's okay." Her smile was still warm. "Just hold it like this and I will hug you just like I used to do back then."

Sasuke closed his eyes and soon he felt her arms around him. A warm liquid started to run through his hand and he couldn't hold back his tears no more. Gasping, Naomi stepped back slowly, covering the wound with her hands. She was about to say something but saw something that made her give the brightest smile Sasuke had ever seen.

"I have finally found you." Naomi said, but Sasuke didn't think she was talking to him.

And he felt something he hadn't felt since he was a kid. A warm, cozy feeling of safety, plenitude and love. Sasuke used to feel like this every time Itachi and Naomi took him out to a picnic, to play on a waterfall or when their parents were on meeting and the young couple stayed to babysit him. In short, every time he witnessed the deep connection they had.

"Itachi… is here?" He asked, but Naomi was now shining in a golden light and her body disintegrated slowly, the pieces were fading away. "Nee-san, what is…?"

"See? I told you: I belong with him." She said, still smiling.

Sasuke also smiled and then he was standing alone on the cemetery… Or so he thought.

"Sasuke-kun, are you alright?" Asked Sakura, running to him.

"When my brother was ending the Edo Tensei he said he didn't have regrets on this world. After Naomi-nee awoke, I was wondering why would he say that if he knew that his beloved was agonizing under the ground." He said. "But now I get it: he did what was best for her back then and he knew that they would be together again once she found out that she only had to let him go and follow him. Itachi foresaw even that."

Sakura shook her head in awe. "They really really trusted each other's love blindly, didn't they?"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Heh, you don't sound like the lady that promised me wholeheartedly I would never regret if stayed with her..."

"Well, I will keep working on my promise but it's like out situation it's the same as theirs, I mean, you never tested my faith like that." She explained.

Sasuke laughed and grabbed her hand to guide her home. "Yeah, it's not like I had left our village to live with an enemy, tried to kill you once or twice and intended to destroy Konoha." He joked. "And, despite it all, you never stopped believing nor loving me because, in your heart you always knew I would get back on my feet and found my way to your love."

She blushed. "How do you know that? I never told you how I felt about all that."

He smiled. "It's like Nee-san said, it's easy to understand your soulmate's thoughts once you put yourself on their place."